Kultúra mantáckej minority v období socializmu

Rok, strany: 2003, 321 - 341

The article offers an analysis of a specific phenomenon in Slovakia during the communist regime: a more or less tolerated form of a German, in the regional dialect called „mantak”, mikroculture in the quite isolated small town Medzev (germ. Metzenseifen) with about 4000 inhabitants in the valley of river Bodva in East Slovakia. It deals with the actively spoken mantak language and with the use or even abuse (!) of mantak elements of folklore (songs, dances, traditional costumes etc.) for example for socialist propaganda in the time after World War II and 1989. The original mantak population, that had been living there since the middleages and that managed to stay during the cruel time of the compulsory transfer under president Beneš in 1946/1947, was strongly discriminated on the one hand side. But on the other hand side their peculiarity was tolerated and even stimulated by local mantak or Slovak communist leaders. As Metzenseifen was a traditional hammersmith town the communists who had called the smiths to work in a huge local factory were interested in motivating them. They should not forget how „diligent” their mantak ancestors had been and allowed them to dress up in traditional mantak costumes and sing mantak songs during folkloristic festivals. Of course they could practise in the factory after work. Slovak newspapers were writing about the mantak people and special mantak customs without mentioning that they were Germans. Everything „German” had been put under a taboo, and although there still lived people of German origin in some regions of Slovakia they preferred to camouflage it and spoke about „mantaks”, „potoks” or „swabians”. Peculiar groups in different small towns or villages were easier to control than a strong German association of an accepted minority. When mantaks of Medzev started to mobilize members for a Cultural Association of the German Minority of Czechoslovakia (Kulturverband der Bürger deutscher Nationalität der ČSSR) that had been founded in Prague in 1969 they got problems with Slovak authorities as there was an aversion against German cultural manifestation. Inspite of all problems there was founded a local group of the association in Medzev in 1970, the only one in Slovakia. It had been working only for three years, then the pressure started to be unbearable and the officials stopped their activities (e.g. German cultural program with songs, dances, poems, theatre etc.). In Slovakia the more than 5000 official Germans (of course there were much more who were afraid to declare their affiliation) had no own newspaper, radio program, special German classes for small children etc. during communist time as they were not accepted as a German minority group with the same rights as other national minorities.

ISO 690:

Richter-Kovarik, K. 2003. Kultúra mantáckej minority v období socializmu. In Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, vol. 51, no.3, pp. 321-341. 1339-9357.

APA:

Richter-Kovarik, K. (2003). Kultúra mantáckej minority v období socializmu. Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, 51(3), 321-341. 1339-9357.